Editing everyone else’s Athfest coverage made me want to write about my own experience, especially since there are a lot of bands we haven’t covered yet. So here you are, stories from the Athfest trenches as told by Music Director, Brett Bennett.

To me, Athfest is a time where you can roam around downtown all day and run into your friends, run from venue to venue seeing bands, and tell yourself that you deserve one weekend where you aren’t stressed out about work stuff, that 30 page paper you need to finish for summer research, or that you don’t have enough money to buy that new Morrissey album coming out. It’s staying up all night, waking up at friends’ houses and probably making bad decisions. What happens at Athfest stays at Athfest, I say.

Well, I saw some bands:

The most memorable performance I saw on Friday night was the Coathangers. I regret missing the supposedly insane Muuy Biien show that packed out Go Bar and featured lead singer Josh Evens rocking the wheelchair like early Jarvis Cocker/ Jean-Luc Godard, but I had never seen the Coathangers before and couldn’t miss them. They are a trio of totally rocknroll girls, one with Steve Stephens hair, the other two with tattoo sleeves. They often ran around switching instruments, each one able to rock on out the other’s instrument of choice. They had so much energy and insanity and at one point the lead singer had the microphone wrapped around her neck, choking herself. The moshpit got a little crazy, a few people thought it was a good idea to mosh with a beer in one hand, but I’m proud of all the bruises I accumulated trying to stay afloat. There was even a lull where I found and hugged an old friend from high school. Their show was so much fun I ended buying a shirt and their newest album on vinyl.

I got to see a couple more bands on Saturday. I saw Muuy Biien on the outdoor stage at Caledonia. Josh has been rocking a tie and suspenders look that looks nothing but cool on him, especially before they started and he was sitting down, wearing sunglasses and surveying the crowd. Their set was different from what I’ve seen in the past, they felt more like The Fall than ever, probably because Josh’s injury means he can’t thrash around the stage as usual. But despite breaking his hip he is still an intense, commanding frontman. At one memorable moment he sat back down, the epitome of cool while his band was still slamming away behind him. As always, they manage to balance a wild intensity with a musical tightness, making them a stand out act.

Caledonia was too packed to venture inside so I sat down and waited for T. Hardy Morris to come out. I can’t claim to be the biggest Dead Confederate fan, but Morris’ solo stuff never fails to make me happy. There’s a darkness lurking in the lyrics, but it is the musical equivalent of relaxing on a nice day. It was the perfect act to see sitting down, trying to peek through the crowd to catch a glimpse of the band.

Afterwards I went to the Georgia Theatre rooftop. I remember last year finding the rooftop an annoying venue because a lot of people are just there to drink and talk to their friends, making it a pretty weird venue for the lineup of ambient, experimental and well, Ginko, that landed that spot. But I was crammed on a booth behind a bunch of people, it was that sort of location and that sort of hour of night where ambient music like Gyps really worked for me. The claustrophobic setting I had landed in is probably the perfect place to listen, rather than the openness of most of the rooftop. Also the transition into Kids was weirdly memorable and impressive.

Finally, I ended up at the Go Bar where I saw Dip

When given the opportunity to see Dip I really can’t turn it down, because I never have more fun at a show than at Dip shows. And of course, they went all out for Athfest. Dip is hard to explain to someone who’s never seen them, and they are hard to enjoy the very first time you do. They are a joke rap duo who calls their genre “dip” and they mainly chant the same words and the crowd bounces around singing along. Part of their schtick is that they are completely absurd, but the crowd is so earnest and seemingly unironic in loving them. People go crazy for them and for a first time seeing them, that’s alarming. At Athfest their show had a complete storyline, putting David Jernigan in a “life-sized dip decryptor” causing him to die. After the boys panic and advertise Tlaloc they realise they can save him with the power of butts. Queue people dancing on stage, David Jernigan coming back to life, the boys dancing around in tiny underwear. Dip shows are surprisingly ambitious ventures and the crowd is always a weird sweaty mess.

So I had a great Athfest. Saw some great bands. My only qualm is that I forgot to turn the flash on my disposable camera.

Wuogger Will Guerin has some thoughts on Athfest, covering Athens favorites like Reptar, New Madrid and Dana Swimmer.

Deep State – Little Kings Shuffle Club – Friday, 1 AM

It’s a refreshing contradiction to be able to see a group of individuals, distinct in personality and musical direction, run down separate paths but manage to accomplish a singular identity. Singularity derived out of a halved-personality, with the band divided equally between members of local acts Brothers (not biologically, but rather Ryan Gray Moore and Michael Gonzalez) and Little Gold (Christian DeRoeck and Taylor Chmura). And as far as I’m concerned, it’s the best of both worlds. While Chmura is laying down the catchy, pop-punk groundwork, Moore is busy turning his support role into the band’s primary centerpiece of personality as he colors the lo-fi energy with twists, turns and spiraling staircases. Meanwhile, Gonzalez burns with exhaustion as he ruthlessly pounds each snare hit into place, complemented by the low-key DeRoeck and his efficient bass lines. And in the right context, up there on the rickety wooden platform Little Kings calls a stage, with beer cans and ice being jokingly thrown at the band by an audience that was mostly friends, things catch fire. Crowd and band fed off of each other, and when Chmura fell to his knees and strummed away madly, no one could think of the band as anything less than rock stars as moshing and pogo’ing was had by all. Safe to say, my favorite set at AthFest.

New Madrid- Georgia Theatre – Friday, 11:15 AM

As the Georgia Theatre was filling up, soon to reach capacity, it was pretty hard to imagine who would want to go on after an act who was arguably the most buzzed Club Crawl artist on the AthFest billing (sorry David Barbe and Dead Confederate). New Madrid came out with guns blazing, cueing up the “raucous guitar fuckery” of “Manners” before diving into a rollicking and loose collection of their greatest hits (quote courtesy of Flagpole’s Gabe Vodicka). And when I say, loose, oh boy do I mean it. Those New Madrid boys must have partook quite heavily before the show, but the total glow on their faces and their boisterous stage antics were well worth the share of technical difficulties that could probably be linked back to a general lack of sobriety. With lead singer Phil McGill’s hair dancing wildly, the band swayed perfectly between their rootsy, Americana basis and their reverb heavy, shoegaze/psychedelic tendencies – combining their honeyed harmonies with noisey question marks of distortion and feedback. And yes, (do I even need to say it?) the crowd was awful, paying far more attention to the rumors of whether some people named Victor and Heather were getting back together than what was going on on-stage. Lucky for me, I got to (was forced) to eavesdrop on a wonderful collection of conversations that really had me wondering, “HOW WILL THEY GET HOME TONIGHT?”

Dana Swimmer – Hull Street Stage – Friday, 6 PM

It’s hard to say who has worked the Athens circuit more relentlessly than Dana Swimmer over the past year or so. And it’s great to see them still get excited up on stage, to see the facial abstractions that come over Jack Blauvelt’s face, and just to see them all smiling and not at each other’s throats. Friday saw the band dusting off classics (Oh Sista Oh), but generally drawing off of new material from their upcoming LP, whose existence and release date were ambiguously confirmed. The band had to compete with the old, “overt dancing man” (if you’ve seen him before, you know who I’m talking about) and a short set time, but who didn’t get a kick out of Jack when he took the wireless microphone out for a stroll just to hop a fence and walk along the pine straw of the church next door.

Reptar – Pulaski Street Stage – 9 PM

I had someone ask me if I thought that AthFest just pulled some homeless guys off the street to run sound on the Pulaski Street Stage. Harsh, right? But things did seem a bit off throughout the day on Friday. (Can we muddy up the mix anymore with some bass? I don’t know, but we can try!) Graham Ulciny (who sported a wig) didn’t seem to be thinking too highly of the sound engineers on hand either, and made his displeasure quite obvious to them and the audience (to be fair, there was an entire side of stage speakers that was popping and going in and out throughout a majority of the set). It kind of put a weird spin on a show that already felt pretty odd. Everyone seemed to be waiting for something to happen, and things warmed slowly, with “Rainbounce” proceeding without as much as a crowd surfer. They came eventually, and they came in droves, but it just felt wrong at points. Wrong and sweaty. Where was the magic? The setlist wasn’t what the kiddies ordered either, with much of their set comprised of their recently recorded second LP, and some of Body Faucet’s less appealing moments. It was fun people watching though, as the AthFest staff tried to maintain the barriers and people got into scuffles over their general proximity to one another. Maybe the supposedly called off encore could have saved the day? Maybe it was all the fault of the guy who gave the terrible introduction (I opened for you once)? It just wasn’t anyone’s day.

We sent field reporter/wuog staffer/all around Athens cool kid, Zac Turner out to report on THREE days of Athfest. He is very tired now and never wants to listen to music again. Honor his hard work and listen to what he thought about Dead Confederate, The Rodney Kings, Never and MORE…..

As a whole, Athfest was a fantastic experience. So much to do, everything to see, there is simply no way to be disappointed. Walking around the classic city with music in your ears is a feeling that can’t be beat. The collective spirit of Athens is embodied in the people and music during Athfest.

Friday:

The Rodney Kings
This was the first show at Athfest that I made it to. This trio is defined by fast, gritty punk music. Grooving bass lines and mathematical drumming support the wailing guitar and incomprehensibly reverbed vocals. Demonic howls regularly gave way to heavy, rhythmic breaks. The energy of this show was tangible as everyone in attendance banged and thrashed along every step of the way.

Four Eyes
Gosh, I’ve definitely seen Four Eyes perform an embarrassing amount of times, but this year’s Athfest performance rates among her most intimate. As the sounds of Reptar outside faded away, Four Eyes began her quiet set inside of Flicker. She prefaced all her songs, as usual, with awkward, almost self-deprecating humor that personalizes her music. Focusing mostly on newer releases, she comfortably strolled through song after song like a slow romantic dance. We could only sit quietly, completely entranced in her musicial spell for the entire duration.

Dead Confederate
Dead Confederate blew me away at last year’s festival, so naturally I had to do everything in my power to see them again. Their unique blend of southern rock and grunge always commands attention. They certainly have an experienced swagger about them, as they confidently deliver the largest sound they can muster. The band demonstrates a mastery of dynamics as they easily switch between tender, angsty ballad sections and terrifyingly heavy breakdowns. Their sound is certainly carnal, and they always deliver with bombast.

Saturday:

Sehrmann/Oakhouse
Sehrmann began the set off interestingly by changing their band name to “Oakhouse.” The band then quickly launched into a mesmerizing 3 or 4 song set that left everyone impressed. It’s certainly difficult to characterize their music, though they are self-described as “melodic, experimental rock.” Psychedelic textures and up-paced progressive tendencies interweaved throughout their set. Impassioned stage presence culminated in the lead singer breaking a string in the final song. Without missing a beat they reached their climax on the track “Hated Her” which exploded out of the stage.

Never
This girl-fronted hardcore punk band started off their set at Flicker with Minutemen-like funky grooves. Just as everyone was starting to bop around, the lead singer began to systematically destroy our sanity with a voice that one fellow festival goer described as “an expression that could shatter planets”. Her piercing, deathcore-like screams demanded everyone’s attention and left no prisoners.

Sunday:

On Sunday I caught several outdoor shows at both the Hull and Pulaski stage. The first of which was Ed Roland and The Sweet Tea Project. They heavily featured a talented trumpet player that smartly accentuated their fast paced rock music. With a strongly nostalgic vibe, the group practically forced all those in attendance to hum along. Next I was able to catch Timi Conley and Friends, the newest incarnation of an Athens staple. They alternated between slower groove rock and a few fast, surfy-rockabilly tunes. Highlights included the new song “Good Person with a Bad Heart.” Back at the Pulaski stage, Five Eight with Jack Logan took off with an unstoppable, childlike energy and enthusiasm. They bounced through track after track with impressive guitar solos and trendy overalls, never losing their sense of fun. I closed out my Athfest experience with Don Chambers, who casually performed a very endearing set of southern rock. His personable voice and lyrics easily imbued hot and sweaty listeners with the oomph needed to finish out the festival.

Athfest 2014 brought all the different residents of this weird city together in a beautiful harmony. I can hardly wait an entire year for it to happen again.

I never went to summer camp. There are no camp songs or ghost stories from my memory that I can look back on. There are certainly no memories of warmth or togetherness around the campfire like I used to see on TV. I did watch “Ernest Goes To Camp” once, but I much preferred “Ernest Scared Stupid”. In the summertime when I was a kid I watched a lot of TV, I played the drums, and I was bored. I was so unimaginably bored! But from boredom comes great innovation, and that is one strategy that I can share with you.

Having grown up in Athens, GA I come from a long tradition of bored local kids making up their own fun, embracing their inner weirdness, and generally not worrying about what people might think. It was this spirit that I believe inspired the early days of WUOG, and that continues today. So if you are staying in Athens this summer, you live here full time, or you just think of Athens as your groovy adopted home, then this playlist is for you. I may not know anything about summer camp, but I sure as hell know a lot about being fabulous, putting on a pair of gold hot pants and gearing up for an unbearably hot and humid summer. You’re going to need two things: confidence and glitter.

1. Divine – I’m so Beautiful

When Divine sings, “There ain’t nobody better than me, Can’t you see, LOOK at ME!” she is so right. This song fills me with a happiness that is so infectious it has never failed to lift me up from my lowest low. The true brilliance of this song is that while it starts out as very Divine-centric (I’m so beautiful), as the song goes on it slowly adds the lines, “we’re all beautiful, you’ve gotta believe that we are beautiful,” which is so powerful—transitioning from the love and acceptance of the self to a more universal love for all of humankind. It is at times pleading (You’ve gotta believe that I am beautiful!) and at other times completely confident (everyone is welcome to this point of view). Divine, otherworldly in her cosmic magnificence, never to be stopped—not even by death, she’s got a synthesizer that won’t quit and she does it better than New Order. There is no one better. She brings the gift of freedom, and now it belongs to you.

2. Taco – Puttin’ on the Ritz (1983)

Number 2 on my list is Taco’s “Puttin’ on the Ritz.” You look great Taco, and I love your light-saber cane. We see some excellent use of a tap dance solo as percussion at the 2-minute mark followed by sad, scary mannequin men being snowed on, a mouse on a trumpet, a regrettable wah wah guitar solo, and then at 3:58 OH SNAP, did Arthur Russell just wander into this song!? You are forgiven Taco.

3. Bumblebee Unlimited – Lady Bug

I really love long disco and dance songs with that eventual surprise/ payoff at the end. Some have written about this trend in disco as a reflection of the feminine in music (think sexual climax), rather than the more masculine verse-chorus 3-minute rock/pop song. How very boring of you 3-minute rock/pop song! Have you no patience or imagination? Anyway, Bumblebee Unlimited is like nothing else. “Lady Bug” is brilliant, and completely nuts. If you don’t listen past the 2-minute mark, then you never made it to the beginning. And if you don’t listen all the way until the end, then you are getting a spanking.

4. Sylvester – You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)

This song is the ultimate! Sylvester so beautifully shifts between these feminine and masculine identities in physical appearance and through the use of his voice. Naturally, listening to this song must be quickly followed by this Sandra Bernhard tribute, “Free at Last”. She explains it better than I can. Feel real, y’all.

5. Giorgio Moroder – Baby Blue

This is one of Giorgio Moroder’s more optimistic/cheery sounding songs and sounds a bit more like the Yellow Magic Orchestra than his other “hits” like the Coast to Coast bumper music “Chase”, “Knights in White Satin”, or “Cat People (Putting out Fire)”. I’m having one of those baby-types this summer and this is totally going on my baby music playlist. See also: Raymond Scott’s Soothing Sounds for Baby.

6. Human League – The Things That Dreams are Made Of (Dare Album version and Original Dub version)

I cannot get enough Human League, which is why I put two versions of their song “The Things That Dreams are Made Of” on this list. It was hard to choose just one song, because their album Dare is one of the greatest albums ever, but this song is so manically brilliant and stupid at the same time that it totally encapsulates the mood of this summertime playlist. Hey, everybody needs 2 or 3 friends, right? NEW YORK ICE CREAM TV TRAVEL GOOD TIMES! JOHNNY JOEY DEE DEE GOOD TIMES!

7. Yoko Ono – Walking on Thin Ice

O.K. now it’s time to get real y’all. Listen to Yoko Ono everyday and feel the wisdom of raw female power shake you to the core. Don’t be scared. John Lennon plays some pretty radical freak out guitar on this song as well.

8. Olivia Newton John – Landslide

Moving on now to this super bizarre song and video by Olivia Newton John, where ONJ’s love interest is stalked by death, child ninjas, and some interesting alchemical triangle images, only to be locked up in a cave jail by ONJ herself. What is going on at 3:22?! What does it all mean? But damn, ONJ can sing. Check out her album Totally Hot, particularly for the songs “A Little More Love” and “Please Don’t Keep Me Waiting,” which was featured prominently in the series of short films/documentary “The Beaver Trilogy” (deserving of its own post altogether! ). I actually first got into Olivia Newton John after seeing Crispin Glover’s amazing re-enactment of a re-enactment of a true story of a small-town guy who dresses in drag and sings ONJ’s “Please Don’t Keep Me Waiting” under the stage name ‘Olivia Neutron Bomb.’ It’s just amazing!

9. Phil Collins – Don’t Lose my Number

Here’s another song I can’t seem to get enough of these days. My husband thinks this song might be about a gay runaway teen named Billy. Apparently Phil wrote this song in a sort of stream of consciousness state, so I like to think that he was in fact channeling something to that effect. The video is pretty awesomely weird as well, particularly his parody of David Lee Roth at 4:38. Phil seems like the nicest guy, don’t you think?

12. Man Enough to Be A Woman, by Jayne County

Get a copy of this book—the autobiography of Georgia’s own Jayne County, formerly Wayne County of punk rock outfit Wayne County and the Electric Chairs. Her story is inspiring, heartbreaking, and hilarious—taking you from her days hanging out in Warhol’s Factory all the way to becoming a full-blown cat lady and sole caretaker of her mother somewhere outside of Atlanta. She is the best, and this book was part of the inspiration behind the Tunabunny song “Duchess for Nothing” off of our album Genius Fatigue. Here’s a great clip of her back when she was playing as Wayne County:

11. Can’t Stop the Music

Summer will end, but if there’s one thing that you do before it’s over, PLEASE for the LOVE OF ALL that is GLITTERY AND FABULOUS, PLEASE go to your local video rental place (you know the one on the Eastside) and rent the Village People movie, “Can’t Stop the Music.” Ask Sam to help you find it. It’s in the music section.

The soundtrack is, of course, full of amazing Village People deep cuts as well as some of their more well-known favorites. Anytime I feel down, if I put on this movie it completely changes my mood for the better. And that’s what it’s all about. This is the transformative power that music/movies/books and art can have. Keep it weird y’all, make your own fun, and take care of yourselves this summer.

Love,

Brigette

]]>http://wuog.org/2014/2488/feed/0Drive Hard: An Interview with Joe Rowehttp://wuog.org/2014/drive-hard-an-interview-with-joe-rowe/
http://wuog.org/2014/drive-hard-an-interview-with-joe-rowe/#commentsWed, 26 Mar 2014 05:17:27 +0000http://wuog.org/?p=2269The typical, popular Athens music narrative tends to start with B-52s, Pylon, bands mentioned in Party Out of Bounds, and continues to R.E.M. and Athens Inside Out Bands. Then, the narrative jarringly jumps to Elephant Six. Often less mentioned are bands such as Mercyland, Porn Orchard, Bliss, Magneto, and Roosevelt, who formed part of a local Athens hardcore/post-hardcore scene. Besides Mercyland and Porn Orchard, these bands are largely undocumented, their existence betrayed by a couple of tracks on a compilation, FUEL: Seven Bands From Athens, Ga. , put out by Self Rising Records. The compilation is indicative of an active, fervent scene, albeit one without many outside resources or media attention. I sat down with Joe Rowe, the drummer of Bliss, to talk about Athens in the 90s. Rowe currently leads a bands called The Goons and has played with bands such as The Glands.

WUOG: When did you first come to Athens?

Rowe: In 1987.

WUOG: Was it for school, or music, or…?

Rowe: Yeah, it was for school. I graduated high school in 1987, and I came here to go to school. I was studying music, and I was actually in the Georgia Redcoats marching band for that year too, playing cymbals. Yeah, I was a music major, but I failed out after a year or two, because i didn’t want to be in school. I basically just came here to please my folks at the time.

WUOG: What was happening in Athens around 1987 at the time? What was the scene like?

Rowe: Scene-like, there were a lot of spaces downtown that proper businesses weren’t in at the time, and people, like artists and musicians, were just renting them out, using the space, sort of borrowing the space, setting up rehearsal spaces, or art studios, or even clubs… clubs that didn’t last for very long. I remember there was one club called Nebraska that was open. It was like right downtown, kind of right around the corner from where the bike shop [Sunshine Cycles] is, across from the 40 Watt. That place was open for a little while, and they did shows in there as often as they could. Things like that were happening. It was a little more laid back. It was a little less commercial. There was not as much money. Not as much investment, where [now] the rent is so high. Downtown was just a little bit looser at the time.

WUOG: People would play to just play downtown?

Rowe: Yeah, in the spaces that were free. I never actually did that myself. I never like actually ran a club or had a space anywhere downtown, but I know that there were some bands that were playing around there. I don’t know who they got in touch with. I guess they got in touch with the landlord, and the landlords would let bands have shows.

WUOG: How did you meet Andy Baker and Will Low? How did the band congeal?

Rowe: I remember Will was playing in a band called Ruby Red. I was actually playing in a cover band. A couple of the guys in the cover band were in a fraternity that was on campus, and I started playing with them. Ruby Red, Will’s band played at the fraternity house one night. The cover band that I played in would play there sometimes too. We would just hang out there. I was actually a pledge there for a little while, until I failed out of school. Everyone I knew at the time, since I was in that band, or a lot of people i knew, were in that fraternity, but then I met Will playing at a fraternity party, playing with his band Ruby Red, and we just decided to start playing together. He pretty shortly quit that other band. It was just me and Will playing together in this basement apartment for a while. And then Andy… I can’t remember exactly where I met him. I just met him at a show or just kind of around, but he was playing in a band with a friend of his from Illinois. They were in a band called State of the Union. It was kind of like an Americana band. They did a lot of covers, and they needed a drummer, and Will and I needed a bass player. So we made an agreement that I would play drums in Andy’s band, State of the Union, and he would play bass in our band, and that’s how we started playing together. That was like late 80’s, early 90’s. I can’t remember exactly when, but right around that time.

WUOG: What type of band did you want Bliss to be? It sounds like, from what I’ve heard, to sort of have a Dischord type of sound to it.

Rowe: *laughs* yeah

WUOG: Sort of something like Slint meets Meat Puppets. Sort of like post-hardcore with a southern or country influence.

Rowe: Yeah, yeah. That’s exactly what we wanted it to be, for better or for worse, I guess. When Will and I first started playing, he had these songs, and it was very fast i remember. It was pretty fast and hard. Right then, before Andy joined, I don’t really remember trying to be too derivative or ripping off of anybody else or anything, but then,shortly after Andy joined the band, I know that I really fell hard for Fugazi. I started listening to them all the time, and then [I was] finding out all these bands, these Dischord bands. But they were really my main influence. It seems like I brought that a lot into the band. We were first called Cancer before we were called Bliss. We called ourselves Cancer, but we changed the name. There was another band called Cancer, and that was a pretty bad name anyway. So, yeah, we were really influenced by that kind of Dischord stuff, and then, a little bit later, I know I was really influenced by The Jesus Lizard and bands on Touch and Go. So basically, yeah, that kind of stuff, Dischord, Touch and Go, Sub Pop.

WUOG: Were there other bands in town playing post-hardcore type stuff or were you guys the only ones?

Rowe: For a little while it seemed like we were the only ones. There were bands that were already playing here in town like Mercyland, Jackonuts, Damage Report, and Jarvic Aid. Some of those bands were kind of doing the industrial thing, like industrial rock sound, or just straight up punk rock. I don’t really follow what they call the punk rock scene in Athens right now. I don’t really know what that is, but I know it’s out there and always happening, but it seemed like, at the time when we started playing, there were a lot of bands around that were playing really aggressive music. It seemed kind of more aggressive than the things people are doing these days. Maybe we were the only ones that were kind of like straight up kind of co-opting that Dischord sound and Touch and Go stuff.

WUOG: Did you guys tour or did you mostly play in town here?

Rowe: We mostly played in town. We tried to tour, but you talk to people who played back then… They always say the same thing. You know, it was before cell phones, it was before the internet, and we didn’t have a booking agent. So it was really, really hard for us to get shows out of town. It was basically calling the club every day at a certain time and trying to get to actually to talk to someone to book a show. So, we played a little bit out of town. The band called Porn Orchard, that’s another band that was around that was doing that, that was a pretty aggressive band, and they were nice enough to take us on a kind of small east/south-eastern tour one time. We toured with them and the Jackonuts, when Laura Carter was singing with them. She used to be in the Bar-B-Q Killers. So, we went on a short tour with Porn Orchard and Jackonuts to Virginia and places around, but that was really the longest tour we went on, and that was only a couple of weeks, and then we did some one-offs. We played in a club in Asheville, and there was a place called Johnson City, Tennessee. For some reason it was easier for us to get gigs there than at other places, so we played there a few times. We played Atlanta at the Masquerade every once in a while, but it was really just mostly Athens.

WUOG: You guys put out two cassettes? One was called Drive Hard?

Rowe: Yeah, one was called Drive Hard. And I think the other one might have been called Man Comes a Knockin’. Yeah, but it’s kind of hard to remember, it’s kind of fuzzy, about the stuff that we recorded. I guess it was always on cassette, except for that compilation, the Fuel compilation, but we put out at least two cassettes, and I know that there was some other stuff that we recorded that I just don’t have anymore, or it wasn’t on those cassettes.

WUOG: A name that keeps popping up on recordings is Kelly Noonan. She’s listed as engineer a lot. Was she important in recording the band or to the scene in general, in regards to engineering?

Rowe: Yeah, that’s her studio *points to a picture* [Suite 16], she had a studio in her house back then, that’s Andy. We were recording there. I think we recorded the stuff that’s on this [Fuel Compilation] there. I think we were probably doing a deal where we would try to get these bands to record with Kelly, and then maybe they’d get a deal, and Kelly’d get the work you know? But yeah, she was in a band back then called Wet it was an all girl band, an all female band called Wet. They were really good. We played with them a lot. I worked with her at the Gyro Wrap downtown. A lot of people [worked there]. There’s a guy that i met that i worked with there when i first moved to Athens, whom i still play with, and she worked there for a long time, and there were some other musicians that worked there for a long time. After Wet, she had a band called Jackpot City that was together for a long time.

WUOG: Do you remember how the Fuel compilation came together? Who exactly was putting it together? DId you feel an affinity with these other bands like Hayride, Roosevelt, Thorny Hold, and Jackonuts, that were on it?

Rowe: Yeah, definitely. I think the first people that started to put it together were myself, Andy, a woman named Pattiy Torno, who owned that club in Asheville, called the Squash Pile, and her boyfriend at the time, or it might’ve been her husband at the time, Chris Purcell. He still lives around town. Chris and Pattiy owned the club in Asheville, and I think we might’ve been driving between here and Asheville, and Will was involved too. I think we just came up with the idea in the car. We were driving between here and Asheville. Patti and Chris, they moved into a house with Andy and I. Andy and I lived together in two different houses. He had a recording studio in one of the houses. So, they lived with us in our house for a little while and we started putting this compilation together. Oh! And Ballard too! Ballard Lessman. Earlier he was in a band called Haytire Blowouts, but he was in Roosevelt, and so he was kind of one of the main people also. I kind of dropped out after a little while. I was kind of one of the first who dropped out the record label [Self Rising Records] because the idea was to not just put this out but to put out other things, which we did. I think Bliss put out a single, and they put out another compilation after the first one too. And then I just think it became Patty and Chris and Ballard basically, from the band Roosevelt. And he’s a writer now, Ballard writes some articles for Flagpole every once in a while. He writes some music articles. Yeah i think he wrote the Mercyland article that’s in the paper now. He doesn’t live in Athens anymore. But yeah all these bands on this compilation, we all played together and hung out together and that’s probably why these are all the bands that are on this thing. You know, just because it was an obvious thing it was a given. It was obvious who was gonna be on it. It was just bands that would play together. I play in a band with Frank McDonald, I still play with him in a couple of bands actually. Five-Eight were really nice to us, they were together before we were. They let us play some shows with them. Andy and I, we actually had a live sound company for a little while, and we ran sound for some of their shows for them for some of the fraternity shows and stuff. And Hayride, with Kevin Sweeny, they were great, we hung out with them, they were really great. they were really good friends with Kelly. I think we did one out of town show with them in Florida somewhere. Kevin and Nick and Will. We know all these guys. The people that I didn’t hang out with quite as much were Jackonuts. Just because they had been around. They were older.

WUOG: Elder-statesmen?

Rowe: Yeah, exactly. I was a fan of them. I was afraid to talk to them, and they were so crazy on stage and on their records and everything! They were kind of like what i was trying to be I guess at the time. Five Eight, too were kind of elder-statesmen, but These other bands were kind of all at the same age, same incubation, or period, or whatever. More buddies.

WUOG: I wanted to ask you about the name Bliss and the lyrics. Do you remember who wrote the lyrics?

Rowe: Yeah, Will was the singer and he wrote all the lyrics for the most part.

WUOG: They have a dark humor. Like in that song Acid Lake and Hydroplanin’. They seem very sardonic. There’s a theme of destruction it seems, would you agree with that?

Rowe: Yeah, I would agree with that. I would agree with that for sure. Um, Will, was a really nice guy, he was a really smart guy. He was probably one of the more i don’t know one of the more cleaner cut. He went through school, graduated school. He works for IBM now in the research triangle North Carolina area. But um, yeah i think a lot of that might’ve come from his family. I think he, like a lot of us do, had some family issues. You know some family members that you might not be too crazy about? Acid Lake, that was all about acid rain and commercialism. He was pretty well into that. He was kind of political, kind of social-political for sure in a lot of his stuff.

WUOG: There’s one song about stopping at a gas station and not having any cash and steam rising from the streets, and it goes “I’ll never hear those four track songs again”.

Rowe: The house that Andy and I lived in and recorded in and practiced at got broken into one time and they stole some gear. They stole our four-track machine that we were recording on. So that comes straight from that yeah. In one song, it might even be the same song it talks about being on the road on our way to Johnson city, which was the place where we played mostly out of town, just because we could.

WUOG: Were you trying to make a career out of this or were you playing to have fun?

Rowe: I think Andy and I more would’ve liked to have a career in it, at least in the music business in one way or another, and Will was, I think, although he was really dedicated to it at the time and really into it at the time, I think it was just kind of a stop gap for him more than it was for Andy and I. Andy and I still play music. We’re still very involved in music, and he’s not anymore as far as I know of. He has a family, he has a wife, and he has several kids and i don’t think he plays music anymore.

WUOG: You guys were together from about 1990-1993 or so?

Rowe: Yeah, that sounds about right. It’s kind of hard to remember. I’m bad about dates and things, but that sounds about right. I don’t think we were together any longer than five years.

WUOG: Was it a friendly end to the band?

Rowe: Well… if I had been more mature. I mean, it wasn’t bad. Will told us kind of a good ways in advance that he was gonna have to stop doing the band for a while for some reason. I can’t remember exactly why. Maybe it was because he had to go somewhere else for school, and I remember getting pretty upset by that and not acting very well about it. When he told us that, that there was going to be a certain point where he’d have to leave, I think I just said well I don’t want to do it anymore and stopped it right then. Andy and I knew that we wanted to play- and keep playing. So he and I stopped Bliss right then pretty much and we started recording, just he and I, and we made a record, just a cassette record because we wanted to keep doing it and we just didn’t like the idea. I would’ve done it differently. Looking back on it, I was just immature. but we’re friends. We’ve always been friends. Although, they did a reunion show, and I don’t know how far after we had broken up the reunion show was. It might’ve been a couple of years or something, but I didn’t play drums for that. Our friend Kyle Spence played drums on that. I can’t really remember how that went down. It was mostly amicable, but there were some feelings that got hurt, you know?

WUOG: Is there anything else you’d like to add about Athens at that time in general or about the band?

Rowe: I really liked a club, one of my favorite clubs to play in town was a club called Club Fred. Have you heard about Club Fred?

WUOG: Was that on Baxter?

Rowe: Yeah, it was. I don’t know if there’s anything in the space now, but at the time it was a pizza place upstairs, and for some reason the guy that owned the pizza place decided to have shows in the basement of the club. The guy that we dealt with to book the shows, his name was Fred. I don’t know if he was just the owner of the building or if he owned the pizza business. I’m not sure, but it was like this family friendly restaurant upstairs, and downstairs there were really low ceilings, it was unfinished, and it was a really, really fun place to play. It was really, really free for all, and they set up a little tiny bar down there. and I saw a lot of good bands there. It was almost kind of dangerous. It had this kind of dangerous element.

WUOG: Dangerous? How so?

Rowe: Well, at least to me. Maybe it was because I was younger and things were newer to me, you know? The music scene and everything. It seemed like there was a more dangerous, punk rock thing going on with a lot of bands at that time, and Club Fred was a place that fed that really well. For one thing, it wasn’t downtown, it was on Baxter street, so it was a little bit more lax. People were smoking and drinking in the parking lot. So it was little more looser, there weren’t as many rules. You weren’t worried about the law so much, being out of town a little bit. That was one of my favorite clubs in Athens, for sure. I saw Sebadoh there. I saw a band called Rain Section there. I saw Royal Trux there. I saw a lot of great Athens bands play there. Another club I liked a lot was called the Uptown Lounge. It was right downtown. I don’t know what’s there right now. I think maybe there’s a brew pub there right now. I can’t remember what street it’s on. Well actually I think it’s on the same street as the Forty Watt club [Washington]. It’s just up the street it’s up the block near the end near city hall. That was a really good club to see a band. It was two different clubs after that. It was a place called the Atomic and it was a place called the Shoebox, but when it was the uptown lounge it was a really great place to see bands. It was small, considering the bands they had in there, it was a small club. I saw Sonic Youth in there. I saw Jane’s addiction in there. There were a lot of great bands around from Athens that played in there, whom I really really liked at the time. There was a band called Seven Simons. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of them. They really had their shit together, I thought. There was a band, all black guys from atlanta, called Father for Now, and they used to play there a lot. You ever heard of them? They were really good. They were kind of doing the Fish-bone kind of funk-rock kind of stuff kind of like Faith No More. Usually when people bring up the “good old days” i always think of Club Fred and the UptownLounge for some reason, because i liked those places so much. The old Forty Watt was where the Caledonia is now. That was a really great club. It was just kind of a hole in the wall, and there were a lot of good national bands that would come through there.

WUOG: Were there a lot of house shows going on or did people try to play more in venues?

Rowe: I don’t remember playing a lot of house shows, actually. I’m sure that we did. I know that we did, I can think of one right now, but not a whole lot. It seems like they’re doing that more now than they did back then, or at least from what I know of. We didn’t play a whole lot of house shows. There were always some outside things. It seemed a little bit easier at the time to play outside and to play outside downtown. I remember some people would put together like day and night long events and have bands play all day and night. You don’t see that much anymore, except for the stuff that’s sanctioned by the city.

WUOG: Like Athfest?

Rowe: Yeah… There were a lot of bands playing at fraternities and sororities too. It was an interesting mix of people.

WUOG: Andy went on to be involved with Chase Park?

Rowe: Yeah, Andy started Chase Park with the other Andy, andy Lemaster, and David Barbe, but he always had a studio somewhere. He ran a studio out of the house that we lived in for a while. Then, he built a studio at a house he bought at the end of Boulevard. I don’t know if it’s still being used as a studio, but it was being used as a studio for a long time after he moved out of town. He’s been in Taiwan for a number of years now, working over there, producing. He was recording bands. From what I’ve heard, he’s gotten mainly into the mixing and mastering side of things. He recently built a studio specifically for mixing and mastering. I really haven’t talked to him much over the last several years. He’s not in the states very often anymore.

No filter is needed when a lyric like “get fucked up six days a week” comes out as something other than a congratulatory ego stroke. The undressed, scuzzy guitar hooks that recall the brilliance of Yuck’s self-titled album sound frustratingly easy to come by, unforced and involuntary. A song able to so effectively tease what comes after the first cymbal crash, complete with blunt lyrics so universally angst-ridden you can’t tell if it was the first thing that came to mind or the product of revision after revision.

“I sleep like I’ve lived to long, Fucked up six days a week. Get to kiss you in my best poems, I write like I can’t speak. Go get lost with someone else now, I hear she’s got great eyes. Fuck it all good luck, I’ll be damned if I can’t die”

Check out their Bandcamp and Facebook if you’re looking for another acceptable way to procrastinate.

I met Jay Stanley, Twin Studies frontman, at a Best Coast show at the Variety Playhouse. He asked what I was reading (Vonnegut) and told me he was in a shoegaze band, the now defunct Quiet Hours. He ended up sharing the stage with Bethany Cosentino that night – not as a performer in the traditional sense, but as a member of an impromptu dance duo that allowed themselves on stage for some (most likely) drunken antics.

Not exactly the temperament you’d expect when facing “Precious Places” – a melting film of blinding lights disarmed by the word you can never fail to say in a review about shoegaze – reverb. Making it hard not to picture the swirling tapestry of the Cocteau Twin’s album cover, Heaven Or Las Vegas when you listen – embracing the cozy sweater that blankets warmth with its completeness – but pairing just enough discordance against the cooing female vocals to establish some sort of reality.

Check out “Precious Places” in the video below and if you’re still thirsting for some more fuzzy dream-pop head on over to the band’s Facebook or Soundcloud page.

A few weeks back we featured Nobra Noma’s “Loafergaze” as our local song of the day and today, just to be confusing, we’re taking it back to Atlanta with a similarly named solo project, Nomen Novum. Even though both men denied much knowledge of each other during their respective Live in the Lobby interviews, I think the public can rest assured that yes, this is some kind of messed-up conspiracy that traces it’s way back to gray, spindly bodies floating in formaldehyde in Roswell, New Mexico. I can only imagine what perverse things went on when the depraved duo opened up for Twin Sister back in May.

When frontman David Norberry isn’t out burying bodies of whistleblowers…well that is pretty much all he does. Sometimes though, he tries his hand at music – pillowy, pop-friendly synths has generally been his calling card in the past. This time, he’s teamed up with the more experimentally minded, Atlanta-based, easily suede (say the name out loud for its full, punny effect) and sanded down the sugary vocal hooks that dotted If You Look For It, It’s There. Stillcatchy and joltingly danceable, but blurred behind a hazy fog of static that the whispery vocal lines drifts in and out of. A numbed background playing the perfect veil for the glowing keyboard that cuts through.

Editor’s note: Here it is! Our coverage of Athfest 2013. From 7 of our best writers here’s a list of show reviews in alphabetical order for your reading pleasure. We had a lot of fun this year and hope you enjoy living vicariously through our words. Photo albums will be up this weekend.

Athens Tango Project

The Athens Tango Project is a group of 5 multi-instrumentalists who, as the name suggests, perform classic tango songs. The ensemble consists of upright bass, guitar, flute, clarinet, saxophone, drums and vocals arranged differently track by track. The musicians presented themselves very much in line with how the tango presents itself: cool, calculated, mature and passionate. Although there was no shouting, dancing, or other stereotypical signs of passion it could be read through the precision of their movements and deliberation in their playing. It was certainly a shock (though a pleasant one) waking up from the late night hardcore shows of the night before to this and the audience dancing the Argentine Tango. Throughout the show I was wondering where I could get a coffee and a cigarette and I am not even a regular consumer of either. In the end I was left with one thought over anything: I really need to learn how to tango. – Daniel DeSimone

BAMBARA

Even though they were just sound-checking, Bambara had me frantically searching and emptying out my pockets in search of my ear plugs. After the show, a couple of friends told me that they achieved a comfortable volume level listening to the band out on the patio. Bambara seemed to poise their torrent of deafening, filthy haze at killing a man on Saturday night. Not with the blunt force of a hammer to the head like Manray but with a complete sonic immersion that keeps your head submerged in muddy waters till you drown. Harsh loops of feedback that cut through the thrashing skirmish of drummer Blaze Bateh. It seems unavoidable to apply the feeble descriptor “intensity” to Bambara. They have a ferocity that can only be encapsulated by the word DREAMVIOLENCE, the band’s most recent LP that conjures up strength of emotion that could only be found in the brain’s chasm from reality. Scary and painful like having your teeth drilled through, a spell cut slightly short when Reid Bateh’s calls for a replacement guitar went unanswered. – Will Guerin

Cars Can Be Blue

Missing a bass player, Cars Can Be Blue was the reverse of Eureka California, with a female front and a guy on drums. Before the show, a friend of mine asked what kind of music they were, and I instinctively said “they’re kinda like twee punk.” I said it without too much forethought, but it does seem to fit. Some of the lyrics are very straightforward, passionate, and VERY vulgar, but some are just downright cute and charming. The chorus in “I Am a Slut” was the former – filled with so much profanity that the shock value had the audience bursting out laughing that a voice so sweet would be saying them. I’ve had the chorus stuck in my head since then, but to my chagrin there’s not recording of it. If the band chose one direction for lyrics to stick with they may have come across as a novelty, but instead, they operate on multiple levels between innocently playful and the downright obscene, delivering a triumphantly fun show. – Lawson Chambers

Dank Sinatra

The Athens’ Jam staple, Dank Sinatra, went on fairly early in the evening but that didn’t stop them from using an accompanying light show. As spinning colors danced across the ceiling of the tent, the members of Dank Sinatra danced across the stage. After throwing inflatable instruments into the crowd, the band led the audience on an ever-progressing rollercoaster of epic highs and groovy lows. As to be expected from a group of this nature, every member was a virtuoso at his instrument. Guitar solos clashed against each other throughout, only pausing to allow frantic keyboards and organs to come to the front of the mix.

Their knack for funky dance jams was apparent as they segued through the first three different songs without stopping. Everyone in the crowd was so engrossed in the multi layered compositions to even stop dancing for a moment. Despite their long and flowing song structures, Dank Sinatra’s performance never, at any point, seemed boring. This is due to the fact that they know exactly how long to lay down a groove. Right after the audience settled in to one riff, they would deftly turn on a dime by taking the intensity up, cooling it off, soloing, etc. On this sunny and hot afternoon it would have been easy for everyone to just chill out and fan themselves, but Dank Sinatra wouldn’t allow it. It is in their very nature to force all of those in attendance to rave and sweat until they have nothing left to give. – Zac Turner

Dead Confederate

“I’ve heard things about Dead Confederate. They’re good, but can they follow that Easter Island set?” Yes. Yes, they can. Dead Confederate is a completely different breed of animal from their stage predecessors. Using feedback and pure sonic aggression, their very being screamed grit. The music was undeniably heavy and perfectly accented by the band’s chaotic stage presence. To the tune of raucous grunge music each member stomped and paraded around with an animal magnetism. The drummer pounded so hard on his set that I could visibly see each piece shaking and threatening to fall over.

Intimate crooning combined with dissonance and gargantuan sonic assaults on classics like “Wrecking Ball.” These older songs blended perfectly with songs off of their recently released album In theMarrow. To showcase their versatility and pay homage to their upbringing in the “middle of nowhere” (how they nostalgically referred to their Athens home) they played a country encore. Everyone held up their drinks and grabbed their buddies to sing along before the band ended their blistering set with another crushing guitar number. Dead Confederate followed a very talented band by playing louder and heavier from start to finish. No person in attendance had their eardrums spared as the band pushed the gain on their amps to 11. With a definite swagger they sliced through old and new songs to deliver one of the most angsty sets of Athfest. – Zac Turner

Dip

I ended my Friday night by heading over to Go Bar to see the return of DIP, Athens fake-ish rap sensation. I say fake-ish because it’s clear that most of the appeal of DIP is in their tongue-in-cheek and overtly raunchy humor but it’s also clear that these guys take not being serious very seriously. The beats are grimy as hell and are actually very well done, the rhymes are usually just garbled words that utilize the word “Dip” over and over but the hooks are catchy enough to the crowd to sing along and mosh with reckless abandon. With plenty of stage props, crowd interaction and general artistry to be found on stage, DIP may have been the best hip-hop act at all of Athfest. – Nathan Kerce

The Dream Scene

I went to the rooftop of the Georgia Theatre knowing only one song by The Dream Scene, but that song was enough to get me incredibly excited to see their Athfest show. The crowd was on the smaller side but those who were there seemed quite interested in what they were hearing. The three members of The Dream Scene were bathed in a blue light as they played their funky tunes. For the most part, I felt myself being compelled to bop back and forth to the music. Only a few songs into their set, The Dream Scene told their listeners there would only be two more songs. Right after this statement, the opening chords to “Let’s be Dogs Tonight” began. This was the song I had come to the show to see and it was just brilliant live. Smoky vocals hung in the air as the sexy bass line boomed over the rooftop. A couple near me who were dancing got closer; the song was bringing an intimacy not seen before to the crowd. One more song was played, The Dream Scene departed, and I began counting down the days until I could see them again. – Dafna Kaufman

Easter Island

Easter Island is a band that I’ve really come to appreciate in the last year. Their often soft-spoken vocals mixed with their big, powerful sometimes stadium-level guitar and percussion is an astonishing mix that sounds incredible in the context of somewhere like the Caledonia or The 40 Watt. Seeing them at The Georgia Theatre was a bit of a different experience however. The larger venue size took a little bit of the intense magic away from some of the smaller performances I have seen them do. No fault of the band I’m sure but the atmosphere did feel slightly off. Still, their playing and crowd control was just as solid and on-point as ever. – Nathan Kerce

Eureka California

Eureka California was one of the two three-piece bands at Cine that were missing their bassist. Despite the disappointing omission, they had no problem filling up Cine with noise. I’ve always casually enjoyed Eureka California as they play the kind of noise pop reminiscent of 90s lo-fi bands like Superchunk and Guided By Voices, which may be my favorite period of music. Due to this and the front man’s Milhouse sticker on his guitar, I was happy to go along with the nervous banter and low-key performance. Just as interest was starting to wander a little, they closed the show with a solid cover of “Game of Pricks.” If you’ll remember my feelings on Guided By Voices from earlier in this review, you’ll know that this was a very welcome surprise for me. – Lawson Chambers

Flash to Bang Time

While I wouldn’t classify Flash to Bang Time as a jam band, it’s safe to say they at least have some jammy qualities. They have heavy riffs, lots of finger picking, loose drums and a tendency towards the grandiose. There was an improvisational feel to the whole affair, something that was on exacerbated by the trippy PC screen visuals being projected on Cine’s back wall. They had somebody in a photo program moving around a pre-designed grid at different paces and intervals throughout the show. It was cool effect that seemed easy to do but was endlessly entertaining. At times it actually sort of distracted me from the music as I got caught up in all the open tabs and mouse clicks. – Nathan Kerce

Ghost Owl

At only 10 weeks old Ghost Owl is still an infant as far as bands go. At least, they would be were it not for the fact that their lineup is exactly that of retired act Perpetual Groove minus Brock Butler. Despite this fact Ghost Owl managed to bear practically no resemblance (at least to me) to P Groove. Whereas the latter emphasized negative space, indie rock, and occasionally southern rock Ghost Owl has diverged into heavier, more psychedelic electronic territory on the low end while maintaining brightness on the high end, essentially pulling apart the textural extremes touching everything from indie rock to chaotic noise. Standing in the audience hearing the play between gritty synthesizers and bubbly guitar riffs I found myself transported to a magical forest in which industrial, mechanical behemoths tromped about. While Albert Suttle manned the drums Matthew McDonald and Adam Perry switched between synthesizers, sequencers, bass, and drums filling the audience with a sound way bigger than you would expect for 3 people. Ignore their past; this is a totally new, heavy, awesome experience. – Daniel DeSimone

Glasscrafts

Mid-way through Easter Island, I opted to walk on up to the rooftop of the Theatre to catch a short set by Glasscrafts. I had seen them once before and had been quite impressed by the amount of pulsating energy they created.. Glasscrafts began playing their set of catchy fuzzy rock-out tunes, when the boy next to me yelled out, “Robby Casso has a big dick!” I turned to him and said that I would be putting that comment in my review (as I am now). Robby Casso is the drummer for Glasscrafts and is still in high school, when I learned this my jaw dropped. I was so impressed with his skill and power. The band as a whole played flawlessly, with Steven Trimmer belting out each song and his accompanying members facing away from the crowd, creating a passionate, yet distant sensation. I was very happy with my choice to visit Glasscrafts and will be seeing them again as soon as possible. – Dafna Kaufman

Grogus

Grogus, Athens’ premier Latin-Caribbean-jazz thing, hit the stage early Sunday morning to an impressive crowd for the time slot, one that they have filled in years past and hopefully will continue to fill in the future. While I enjoy the rowdy rock club scene of Athens I also greatly appreciate the diversity there still is to experience i.e. this act. The ensemble Sunday included upright bass, drum kit, conga, 2 trombones, a flute, and guitar. They performed (as far as I know) both original compositions and older, more traditional songs to appeal to on multiple levels. Knowing only this it is still possible to misunderstand Grogus, so allow me to elaborate: their music is not latin in the sense that many people may think, that they are tossing sombreros and whooping in the style of mariachi. In fact, they generally play a cool, relaxed, afro-cuban lounge-like style though with some heavier breaks. Despite this their shows are rarely still-moving and in this one in particular there were at least a few scattered couples salsa-ing, cha-cha-ing about, having just as good of a time (albeit a unique one) as those at the late night shows. Another crucial aspect to their identity: more than almost any other act I have seen Grogus radiates immaculate positivity, giving thanks, wishing well, honoring local heroes and smiling through songs. If you want to leave a show with a glowing smile, you may want to check some bills for Grogus’ name in the future. – Daniel DeSimone

k i d s

Jared Collins has a certain mystique to him, assigned to that type of domineering songwriter who controls studio output and enlists mercenaries for live performances (in this case, the mustachioed Velocirapture). It’s an allure that makes you want to throw around overly dramatic terms like the “mastermind” or “brains behind…”

As Collins moves away from his lo-fi, bedroom pop to the rooftop of Georgia Theatre, his sound predictably shifts to a more expansive, hazy atmosphere that adds to the recorded material. A transposition that Collins has shown an affinity for in recent history, with the release of the band’s are US EP, recorded live at the Caledonia Lounge. A gap widened by the recent addition of flugelhorn (played by Brian Veysey, Athens busiest horn session player), keyboards and female vocals to the live mix. Surprisingly, the crew member additions didn’t feel gimmicky or forced; the flugelhorn intrinsically carrying the melody in parts, cutting through the swelling walls of sound to punctuate and encapsulate where the lazy progression was heading. – Will Guerin

Lowdive

Up to this point I had seen Lowdive billed along with local act Showtime to form the infamous Hip Hop Funky Soul Band That Rocks but never as a solo act, so I took the opportunity to see them just being them. The band is fronted by bassist Jay Rodgers of Kite to the Moon and I’ll say that a lot of the funkiness and soul carries over propelled by his growling voice and general charisma. Although the music has the feeling of archetypal ska/ska punk, the band forgoes the normally prominent horn section for an organ and a more rock lineup. There was definitely lots of bobbing and many good vibes to be had even if you, like me, feel like a little ska goes a long way. Also, where else are you going to hear the phrase “This song is for a tumor I used to have” followed by an organ glissando and major guitar chops? – Daniel DeSimone

Manray

This whole article could be about the Athfest miracle that happened after Manray found Derek Olivera (one of three Olivera brothers in Manray) jailed for the night of their performance. In true Balto fashion, drummer Blaze Bateh of Bambara, who bears a slight resemblance to Aaron Rodgers, came to save the day on short notice. I have no real means of conveying how difficult it must be to sit in as Manray’s drummer or how amazing it was when Bateh breezed through the performance with just a few hiccups along the way. Mid-way through the performance Jordan Olivera admitted he had been stressing all day over the performance and properly acknowledged the congratulatory tidings that should go Bateh’s way when he said “and SOMEONE suck the man’s dick.”

Understandably, the performance was cut a little short as presumably the new drummer only had enough time to rehearse about thirty minutes of material. The show ended about 15 minutes shy of 2 AM but Manray encouraged the crowd to stick around and drink because “everything else in Athens sucks right now.” A comment completely acceptable to a crowd who had just beaten themselves silly to the soundtrack of Manray’s unmistakable ‘complicated-core.’ – Will Guerin

Maserati

I had been told Maserati was not a show to miss. My friends who had seen them at South by Southwest promised thrashing drums and hurt eardrums by the end. Maserati set up their set outside the Caledonia and did not bother with too much talking. They began their set and a wall of sound hit the audience. With the drum set placed in front, we were face to face with greatness. Mike Albanese, aforementioned drummer, wailed on his drums like there was no tomorrow. Onlookers from Farm 255 gazed out their windows in awe of the noise and majesty of Maserati’s set. The only hitch was a very vigilant photographer who felt the need to run back and forth in front of the band for nearly the entire set. Thankfully, Maserati’s set was not based on visuals. They were simply there to release their aggressive, pulsing post-rock and no photographer could ruin that. – Dafna Kaufman

Modern Skirts

The Modern Skirts final show played out just like a movie. The crowd played their role perfectly, hushed and reverent with eyes gleaming. The band nervously shuffled around on stage under sepia lighting, with the 40 Watt and Sunshine Cycles as their backdrop. Actors on a stage of oppressive importance, emotionally confused, improvising what they thought was expected of them. It wasn’t “Shut Up and Play The Hits” but carried the same, borderline intrusive sentimentality. “You are breaking our hearts,” keyboardist JoJo Glidewell sheepishly remarked to the crowd, as the band began their awkward departure away from a place of love to a life where a packed Washington Street won’t be joining them sing-alongs; a relationship in demise, saying its goodbye at its height.

The Modern Skirts final show was the opposite of a nasty divorce. Instead of months of contempt and bitter remarks culminating in a teary fight of love turned hate, the band stood before an ultimate representation of their fame and impact, distinct from all the reasons they decided to call it quits. A representation of their finality, a representation of everything they meant to Athens. As soon as they took the stage, it was like they were forced to bury themselves at their own funeral, loved ones mourning above. Each shovel of dirt regretfully piled on top of the casket with the realization that maybe this feels like what eluded Modern Skirts their entire career: greatness.

After the flailing staccato of “DUI”, the band obliged the crowd with a final encore that began with a solo rendition of “Save Me.” Seconds later, the band would be walking off the stage for the last time, free from nervously busying themselves during song breaks, with the chorus of “Save me anyway, I’m not coming home today, I’m not coming home” resonating as well as any movie-script ending swan song could have. Perhaps this sounds melodramatic out of context, but their final bow was brilliantly colored, as was the entirety of the concert, by a definitive time and space that is now closed. – Will Guerin

MrJordanMrTonks

MrJordanMrTonks is the eponymous project of misters Tommy Jordan (acoustic guitar) and William Tonks (dobro slide/electric guitar) whose names may ring a bell from local acts like String Theory (Jordan), Bloodkin (Tonks) and Workhorses of the Entertainment/Recreation Industry (Tonks). When they weren’t laughing or joking MrJordanMrTonks performed folk/country tunes rich with vocal harmony and twangy slides from slow, melancholic tunes to upbeat dance numbers. Since the inception of the act it has been a duo but for their performance at Athfest 2013 they performed alongside an upright bassist and a drummer creating a more complex sound and therefore somewhat moving away from the old-timey ethos and more towards Nashville/Memphis country. Either way you like it (and maybe you like both) MrJordanMrTonks is guaranteed to get you smiling and dancing whether or not you’re conscious of it or not. – Daniel DeSimone

Muuy Biien

Only days before their performance at Cin, Muuy Biien was named best punk/hardcore band at the Flagpole 2013 Music Awards and at their show it was easy to see why. The band took the stage in almost all black, instruments, amps, clothes (and hair) then embarked on a relentless assault of music, physically knocking the crowd into each other and bowing heads to the floor. Singer Josh Evans composed himself in a manner that I would call destructive apathy: while staring accusatively ahead he dragged mic stands, shouted incomprehensibly, and paced like someone trying to keep themselves from violently lashing out. Meanwhile the instrumentalists stared down, seemingly oblivious to the chaos occurring around them, almost inhumanly and emotionally removed while playing sludgy, yet phrenetic mosh-ready tunes. All around there was reckless self-endangerment. Basically: It was beautiful. – Daniel DeSimone

Murk Daddy Flex

Murk Daddy Flex’s set at the Georgia Theatre was primarily the same sort of set he’s been rolling out for the past few months. He plays his beats on his cardboard turntable (this time accompanied by surprisingly elaborate cardboard speakers) accompanied by trippy visuals projected on a screen beside him and a few rapper friends he brings out towards the end of the set. It was a solid performance but the beat he teased at the end of the set hinted at some exciting new territory for him in the future. Looking forward to see how he moves forward with both his beats and his live performances. – Nathan Kerce

New Madrid

New Madrid waited till main-stage headliners Modern Skirts finished up before quietly assuming their cosmic Americana twang. Lead singer Phil McGill embodying Workaholics’ Blake Anderson with his floppy mop of hair, complementing Graham Powers overgrown afro. True to fashion, the reserved foursome got lost in the reverb, but maybe not in the way you would think of, coming from the guy in the stoner poncho and Wallabee slippers.Unkempt walls of sound transformed tight crescendos into blurred mile markers as songs trudged along above the increasingly loud crowd chatter. Usually New Madrid plays right into the paradoxical image of a “good ol’ boy” laxity masking a subtle determination and the only reason this complaint is notable is because it compliments their regularly tight guitar lines and harmonies that fell just a little flat, perhaps not properly cemented in some of the new material they trotted out. The problem with consistently bringing crowds to close-eyed, swaying ecstasy and winning Flagpole’s awards for both “Artist” and “Album of the Year” is that when you have an off night some critic that no one cares about writes about it. Set closer “Houseboat” still overwhelmed but New Madrid has had better nights. – Will Guerin

Patterson Hood and the Downtown Mystic Rumblers

Patterson Hood last closed out Athfest in 2009 with a solo set that was remarkably similar to this one. With a heavy focus on the past, his family and the stress of touring, Patterson’s soothing voice overtook the crowd with a set that bordered on the two hour mark. He leaned heavily on material from his excellent 2012 album Heat Lightning Rumbles in the Distance but even for those not familiar with is solo work, the set was a treat. Patterson is a master storyteller and his stage banter which at times came in ten minute stretches is almost as entertaining as his songs. It helps that his sultry country accent permeates both his singing and speaking voice. An excellent close to the festival, again. – Nathan Kerce

The Powder Room

The Powder Room had the unfortunate task of opening up for Manray and Bambara, whose only competition in a hypothetical Flagpole list of “Bands That Will Kick Your Head In” would be Muuy Biien. They sludged their way along roughly the same paths as their headliners, removed from much of the intensity that requires mandatory attendance at any Manray show at the Caledonia. The Powder Room has yet to release anything from the studio, smartly avoiding the pitfalls of a debut while the band is still under construction. Luckily, song titles like “Sand In My Vagina,” that lead singer Charlton Woolfolk hopes that “maybe you can relate to” explains pretty much everything you need to know about the band. – Will Guerin

Quiet Hounds

When I walked up to the Pulaski Street Stage on Friday, I was pretty excited. Quiet Hounds were going to be my first show of Athfest 2013. They had played at last year but I missed their show, therefore, my excitement was pretty high. When we arrived, the crowd was thin and there was no sign of any music. But after 10 or so minutes, I started to hear drums coming towards me. A few marching band drummers were coming through the crowd, as if to announce Quiet Hounds’ arrival. After this dramatic beginning, I turned to see seven men had taken the stage, all wearing wolf masks. Pink smoke brimmed from the stage and Quiet Hounds began their set. They played new and old tracks, while much of the crowd sang along. The vocals were crisp and listeners swayed and smiled to the cheerful tunes. The older woman rocking out next to me sang along as “Hemlock” ended the bands’ set. The Quiet Hounds played gracefully and passionately as their fans and their new admirers began their Athfest weekend. – Dafna Kaufman

Reptar

Reptar shows don’t really get going until that first layer of sweat has begun to drench your shirt. Then, before you know it, it’s all over and the band’s onto their chaotic, crowd-surfing acoustic after-performance. Twelve concerts in to my relationship with Reptar, I’ve come to expect a few occurrences at their shows: The hook to “Sebastian” and the tomahawk chop will alternate with crowd sing-alongs in the break before the band returns for their encore; approximately seven people will yell “Turn up the heat!” as if it’s the most original thing that has ever popped in their head (at least it’s better than someone screaming “Freebird”); the floor will resemble the greasy kitchen floor of McDonald’s in its ability to provide traction. A bro in a retro Phoenix Suns jersey (Jason Kidd-era) will make an appearance (It’s not ever the same person!).

It’s criminal that despite their repetition and annoyances, Reptar concerts are still something I feel I need to go to. You just won’t be able to experience the wackiness of having a Wendy’s burger shoved in your face during the middle of the concert anywhere else. Sure there will be a sorority girl behind you saying things like “This is Reptar! Not AC/DC or something” but it’s a still pleasure just to witness a band develop before your eyes. Friday’s expansions included a horn section comprised of Casual Curious band members, and a new, less-dancey but intriguing batch of songs. – Will Guerin

Sad Dads

One dark and stormy night there was a band booked to perform a show who cancelled last minute and a replacement had to be concocted. Hastily, the wayward scraps of humanity lying about holding instruments were gathered to play a set of some of the saddest, most patriarchal music to ever grace the ears of the listeners. That frankenband was Sad Dads and at Athfest 2013 they took the stage to spread the sad for the last time. Born with an identity crises, the band is the core of a venn diagram of local acts including members from Velocirapture, The Rodney Kings, Figboots, The Barlettas and k v i d s. So what are they really? A joke that got out of hand? the epitome of dada art? The spokesmen of depressed fathers everywhere? Whether they are any of these things or not their show was certainly uniquely them, featuring uncomfortably small shorts, four different guitar players for a 6-person band, and a very drunk 8 person mosh pit complete with stationary crowd surfing. Truth be told I am sad to see them go. Nowhere else have I seen a band perform with so few pretensions while playing such digestible music so as to create such a comfortable environment. It’s just a bunch of friends on stage having a good time and you can feel that as a listener no matter what the people outside looking in think. RIP, pour one out guys, you’ll be missed. – Daniel DeSimone

Shonna Tucker & Eye Candy

I haven’t heard much from Shonna since she left the Drive-By Truckers so I was excited to hear what she and her “eye candy” had in store on Saturday. It was mostly the same well-worn country sound one would come to expect from someone associated with the Truckers. Perhaps it did feel a bit more watered down and a little less fun but this was undeniably Shonna Tucker’s show and I was personally glad to hear that she wasn’t afraid to take a little bit of Truckers-sound along for her solo career. – Nathan Kerce

The Skipperdees

It was Saturday night at dusk; the ripe golden sky had just perfectly matched the string lights strewn over the Melting Point. Inside, the Skipperdees were lighting up the room – punctuating their crooning harmonies with convivial stories about good friends, Peyton Manning, and “the best mom in the world.” The Skipperdees are twenty-one year old Emily and Catherine Backus: fraternal but look-alike twins. Catherine plays guitar and sings lead vocals, Emily plucks banjo and harmonizes with high range notes. Along with the feel-good that comes with seeing twins together (they promised everyone to a “twin-hug” at the merch table after the show,) the Skipperdees’ relationship shines through sweetly when they sing to each other on stage. Slipping into smiles and stomping American flag cowboy boots, they break only to hit the harmonies that much harder. They have well-matched vocal parts that leave you imagining their late-night sibling practice sessions and wishing you were the third triplet.

The one word that comes so easily to me about the Skipperdees is “sincerity.” Emily gushed about recording with Packway Handle Band for their new record and the two reverently covered the B-52’s “Roam.” The audience was pensively quiet during their songs, but really erupted into appreciation after every pause. I felt my body exhale and swirl around lyrics like “You joke you have Restless Leg / the rest of us have restless heads.” From their never-bored stage presence, to their simple but “get-it” lyrics, to their gushing inter-song banter about…well anything, there is not a part of their product comes off less as a performance and more like a conversation. – Andrea Amszynski

Turf War

I ended the night with Turf War at MAX. I’ve been a fan of theirs’ for a while and saw them once before at the Caledonia last year. Turf War excels at making music that speaks to the salt of the earth, reminiscent of The Replacements: music that has straightforward, relatable themes of feeling trapped in a small town, yearning for more, and wanting to f’n PARTY. Accompanying the lyrics is fun, seamless garage rock which makes Turf War’s pathos all that much more effortless. Unfortunately, some of the magic is lost when seeing them live, as they were all VERY drunk, and treated the performance with maximum irreverence. It probably didn’t help that I was fixated on how much the lead singer John looked like Anders from Workaholics, and was coming up with a scenario in my brain where he was Anders’ brother who resented his family and ran away to start a band and get a Jaws tattoo (he had a Jaws tattoo). Despite this, I enjoyed the show, especially when they played a few, very promising, new songs. As I mentioned, Turf War is a vessel to channel the southern, small town restlessness, and their two new songs “My Hometown” and “Stuck in the G A” didn’t beat around the kudzu in achieving that effect. – Lawson Chambers

Velveteen Pink

What happens when four talented musicians with a penchant for the 1980s come together to make music? Apparently you get something along the lines of Velveteen Pink. Sporting tank tops, vibrant shades, and sweat bands the band was like a time machine of the now 30-year-old traditions of synth rock, hard rock, and glam rock in the flesh. As the show wore on they Night-At-The-Roxbury’d and pelvic thrusted their way into the audience’s hearts serving up a decadent display of over-the-top synth solos, vocoders, falsetto exclamations and funky rhythms. I honestly can’t imagine a better way to open up a night that included acts like like Yip Deceiver and Reptar. Velveteen Pink is definitely a show worth experiencing; just get ready to get fabulous – Daniel DeSimone

The Viking Progress

Saturday night reminded Athens that Patrick Morales is still running the course at the helm of Viking Progress. A revolving cast of Athens shipmates at his side that consisted of McKendrick Bearden (Androcles and the Lion), Nicholas Mallis (Yo Soybean, Sam Sniper) and Paul Stephens (Androcles and the Lion, Woodfangs) this go-round. Morales’ vocals still fall short of his studio efforts but it’s nice to hear the more electric leanings in their live performances of their folky tales of a life at sea. The show also featured the first time I saw a fan try to scan a QR code off a performer’s body (Morales was promoting a friend’s documentary) and the first time a band had to order the crowd to pack up the venue’s chairs and stand up. – Will Guerin

The Warm Fuzzies

The Warm Fuzzies, with their heavy power-pop synths and thick-rimmed glasses started off my early Athfest afternoon in the best way possible. As someone who was young enough to not know/care about Weezer’s “The Green Album” being considered a disappointment, I still hold strong feelings for that particular brand of triumphant early 00’s rock; a feeling that was catered to well by The Warm Fuzzies catchy melodies, lyrical self-deprecation and love of videogames. The crowd over on Hull St. was small and mostly full of small children, perhaps the next generation of Rivers Cuomo-loving rockers is already being groomed? – Nathan Kerce

Yip Deceiver

Yip Deceiver was my surprise MVP of last year’s Athfest so I made a special effort to seek out their set at The Georgia Theatre on Friday night. While I can’t say it quite lived up to their Hull St. set from last year (mainly due to raised stage and larger venue eliminating the intimate feel) this was still an incredible solid set of dance and R&B. All of their newer songs went over well with the crowd and their spruced-up suit jackets were probably the single nicest pieces of clothing I saw for the entire festival. I can’t wait for their album out later this year. – Nathan Kerce

Zoogma

Zoogma following Ghost Owl made for a very nice fit as the last acts on the main stage Saturday night. Only a few weeks before this I had the opportunity to see Zoogma at Wakarusa music festival in Arkansas playing before hundreds of people with an insane light show so it was interesting to see the same act playing on a relatively small stage before a relatively small crowd in my own home festival, this time as a headliner and not late evening support. Currently in the music scene there are more and more “livetronica” acts emerging each embodying that concept of mixing (as the portmanteau suggests) live and electronic in their own way. Formulaically Zoogma borrowed a lot from dubstep at this show, employing the infamous build-drop pattern and forgoing live lyrics for vocal samples from popular sources such as Kendrick Lamar’s “Swimming Pools (Drank)” and Dr. Dre’s “Next Episode”. The four members were constantly switching between their computers and their tangible instruments (guitar, bass, keyboards) to create interesting melodies as well as crank out cheesy (sorry) guitar solos. One thing I definitely appreciated about the act (aside from their danceability) was the lack of repetitiveness. No section was dwelled on for too long and none were revisited, like a musical journey. It was spacious but evocative enough to pull you into your own world, but with a beat driving enough to get you to move. From what I heard from the audience Zoogma not only stood up to others in their genre but also pleasantly surprised those who were not necessarily expecting to enjoy the act, always a sign of a good performance. – Daniel DeSimone

Any music festival worth its salt has a comedy portion that everyone decidedly ignores and Athfest is no exception. What’s great about Laughfes though is that it isn’t crammed into a tent in the middle of the day – where tired and sweaty hordes pour in halfway through a set, lose interest, and promptly leave. Instead, Laughfest had had its own night in the Georgia Theatre, allowing the performers to actually connect to an audience and make the evening a great time for those in attendance. Host and producer Chris Patton is to thank for that, so if you see ‘im, thank ‘im. All of the openers were locals, and as I know all of them personally and will likely talk to their faces soon, I am quite happy to report that they all did great. I was a little worried when I looked around the audience and noticed a lot of people from Greek row and older, likely more conservative people, as much of the material was liberal-minded and penis-centric. Turns out though, everyone was on board for the comedians’ perspectives, and the show went as well as I so badly wanted it to. I guess humor is universal or some sentimental schmaltz like that. Jake Brannon’s and John-Michael Bond’s affably self-defeating observations got great applause from the audience.

Thankfully for the show, an older man with a very particular look chose to sit on the front seat: he had a duck dynasty-worthy gray beard, a red western shirt, shorts, flip flops, and sunglasses. He fit right into Luke Fields’ routine about how he can know everything he needs to about a person by how many machetes they own. Beard-guy had two. His cell phone also went off during Caleb Synan’s set, leading to a hilarious exchange with the man and his family. Even the headliner, Brendon Walsh, got to have some fun at beard-guy’s expense, but beard-guy was more than on-board for all of the ribbing. He even tried his darnedest to start a standing ovation for Brendon when he finished.

Brendon’s stand-up his heavily rooted in personal anecdotes, anecdotes regarding how fun a person he is in everyday life. He told stories of pranks he has pulled, both on his friends and complete strangers, he’s had his share of awkward confrontations with authority, and he gave us tips on which songs to pick for karaoke (“Master of Puppets” or “Zombie,” though anything from sporadic whaling or 4-minute long guitar solos will do). He even got some fun jabs at Athens in, claiming that, like Austin, it’s a place where 20-year-olds go to retire. Between the local references and the audience participation, it was a nice intimate evening of comedy, and it made me excited for all the Laughfests to come. Laughfests that, I hope, will continue to grow in popularity each year. – Lawson Chambers

Sprockets

This was my first year rubbing elbows with what seemed like all of Athens’ musicians, filmmakers, directors and sponsors under the stars at The 8th Annual Sprocket’s Music Video Festival at the 40 Watt Club. I volunteered at the first screening of the music videos, which invited all the guests to vote in the “Audience Choice Award.” Other awards for consideration were “Best Georgia Video: and “Best Music Video.” The winners were decided on by a panel of five glitteringly decorated film judges. It was a great event with the audience becoming more expressive as the time and drinks disappeared as we watched great pairings of sight and sound.

My personal favorite was a video for a TWST-1 song featuring Seek Selekta called “Tribo Fuego.” It was a thrilling short-shot and slow motion video featuring images of beach-habitating tribespeople swinging fiery pendulums with blinking smoldering eyes spraying through surf and sand. Directed by Brian Charles Lehrer, it captured both the futuristic and organic elements of its selected song and was a great watch.

Of equal note was the winner of Best Music Video – the video for Grape Soda’s “Obvious Signs.” This was a mix of live-action and graphic art from the mind of director Craig Sheldon and drawn by Lauren Gregg. The storyline was rad so I won’t spoil too much but it involves a deer that plays in a Grape-Soda off-shoot band called Ghost Soda. The playful nature of Grape Soda’s music looked great with the cartoon style but it also was fun to see Athens’ staples like The 40 Watt and the Caledonia Lounge name-dropped and included in the background.

I also laughed out loud at Flickskinny’s “True Tour Stories.” This year’s video featured the stories of Hand Sand Hands and one other artist. A voice over is first recorded by the artist about something funny/terrible that happened to them on tour. The creators of the Flickskinny comic, Jeremy and Clint, then take the stories and, in their own words, “crudely animate them.” This was a perfect break in-between videos and Jeremy and Clint really did a great job bringing all possible jokes to their greatest potential. – Andrea Amszynski